[Boatanchors] Hammarlund HXL-ONE Tuned Input Mod Question

[Freeberg, Scott (STP)]

I took delivery of my HXL-ONE yesturday.  The condition is excellent, a =
real nice looker!  I was disappointed though to find an unexpected =
control knob on the front panel.  I took a picture and put it up on my =
website, photo is at


http://www.qsl.net/wa9wfa/Front_Panel.jpg
http://www.qsl.net/wa9wfa/chassis_switch.jpg
http://www.qsl.net/wa9wfa/chassis_flex_coupling.jpg

The first one is the front panel showing the extra control.  You can see =
it between the Meter and Power switch.  I did observe that the extra =
control comes out of one of the front panel mounting screws, so it could =
be restored back to near original but the original ganging hardware is =
gone.  I'm sure the hole was enlarged a bit too, but a new hole wasn't =
drilled for it.  There is a flexible coupling attached between the knob =
and a switch, shown in the chassis_switch.jpg photo.  The switch has the =
5 silver mica filter caps attached to it and the new L12 inductor.  Its =
an external control for the tuned input filter.  It looks like the tuned =
input filter may at one time have been ganged to the frequency switch, =
or at least thats what the manual update sheet suggest.  If you look at =
the chassis_flex_coupling photo, you can see a slot behind the 1.3Meg =
meter resistors. That is where the 'ganging' string went or should have =
gone.   What is curious is that the 1.3 meg meter resistor is parked =
over the ganging slot.  I looked at the HXL-ONE manual and it shows =
those resistors out of the way and the slot wide open.  If someone were =
changing the filter control, why would they move the 1.3 meg resistors =
over?  Any comments?

While the mod is nicely done (actually very nicely done), I don't recall =
ever hearing about the tuned input filter mod being a another control on =
the front panel.  Have you guys ever heard of a factory front panel mod =
like this or did a previous owner do this on his own?

Any insight on this?  Thanks,

73, Scott WA9WFA